POSTCARD FROM... Vinalhaven, Maine
Wonder Valley co-founder Jay Carroll on swimming quarries, fresh oysters and French antiques
Dearest you,
I’ve finally decided to leave my little island of Bailey, only to visit other little islands along the coast of Maine.
Forgive me if I’m being presumptuous,
But it’s much like - and also nothing at all like - when I leave my big desert near Joshua Tree, I visit other big deserts. I want more of the same, only different.
So, I am “on Island.”
Vinalhaven.
Historic to granite quarries and stone carvers.
Modern (ish) to some of the best lobster fishing in the world
(Likely) Never commercial
Always (fingers crossed) timeless.
First stop off the Ferry, as always, is to our dear friends Sharon and Paul of Marston House.
We are staying in the charming attic above their antiques shop, accessed by ladder, cooled by two box fans, sleeping on old military cots covered in French ticking and surrounded by big vintage signal flags nailed up to the rafters.
This is where we’ll leave from in a couple days with our winnings of old French mercantile… More on that later.
While the sun is out - we swim. That is the main focus of our days spent here. We do this in a number of places both in salt and fresh waters. I recommend both, but the former depends on tides, which don’t always play ball (although I will say food tastes better after a day in salt waters). But what sets this island apart are its community swimming quarries, where one jumps from ledges to swim in safe, warm waters and bless the summer days.
My pregnant wife and I do this multiple times a day at both Lawson’s and Booth’s quarries.
Between jumps we drip dry on big granite slabs while reading Everybody Thought We Were Crazy by Mark Rozzo, which explores the often tumultuous relationship between the young beauty, Brooke Hayward and wild one Dennis Hopper throughout most of the 60s.
We also borrowed Sharon and Paul’s copy of My Robin by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which by extreme contrast explores a much sweeter relationship between an English Robin and the author.
This summer there’s an ambitious young woman on island, from away. She brought with her four women to open—in three weeks—two restaurants, on one small main street. Bernice for daytime, Sonya for supper. Last night at Sonya for supper we had cold oysters, a heaping salad, perfectly roasted potatoes with a juicy half chicken. Highly worth the 1 hour and 15 minute ferry ride alone.
I have learned some lessons.
I’ll share with you now some of the lighter ones of late and leave the heavy ones for another place and time….
One, fog happens. Even in High Season. Celebrate it as best you can.
Two, Maine chooses you,
Much like the high desert chooses you.
The difference is you only feel the choosing of in Maine
And you only feel the rejection of in the high desert.
Three, don’t let the little guy get you down
Four, Summer is fleeting.
Chase it with fever.
And Five, the need to make sense of any of it has long since subsided.
This goes for Maine. This goes for the whole show.
We’re leaving tomorrow with our Marston House bounty of French ticking, French linen, French workwear, French candlesticks, and a few bags of Italian potpourri.
See you on the mainland, unless we see you here first.
Until then,
Adios, goodbye, good luck, so long, farewell…
JC
Jay Carroll is the co-founder of Wonder Valley olive oil products (with a shop in Marfa, TX) and El Rey Court motor lodge in Santa Fe, NM.
POSTCARD FROM... Vinalhaven, Maine
I love the idea of an island choosing you.